My initial post introduced positive psychology as a bridge between the real and the ideal–between who we are and who we aspire to be. The radical paradigm shift of positive psychology is that we don’t cross that bridge simply by solving problems and resolving conflicts. We evolve by building upon our strengths: by becoming more of who we are when we are at our best.

Imagine that life is a gymnasium filled with exercise machines and equipment. One station provides us with a workout for joy and happiness. Another station exercises our capacity for life satisfaction, fulfillment, and gratitude. Still another station pushes us to higher levels of energy and vitality. Creativity, mental toughness, love and friendship, mindfulness–all have their workout spaces in life’s gym.

The notion of life as a gymnasium suggests that how–and whether–we develop hinges on the quality of our workouts. In life, as in the weight room, it’s use it or lose it. We either exercise and develop our strengths or we allow them to fall into disuse. That perspective yields a very different way of looking at our daily calendars and weekly planners: What have I exercised this day, this week? What strengths have I strengthened and which have I neglected? Am I working out, exercising the best within me? Or am I merely coping, keeping head above water in status quo mode?

Talking with coaches and therapists can be helpful in figuring out problems and ways of resolving them. But there can be no bridge between real and ideal without hitting life’s gym. The shrink can analyze us and facilitate greater self-understanding. Development requires expansion, however, not shrinking. In any gym it is only when we push our boundaries that we expand, becoming stronger, faster–more fit.

Financial Markets As Gymnasiums

The traders and portfolio managers I work with can only succeed if their rate of evolution exceeds the rate of change in markets. If markets shift their trends, themes, volatility, and correlations faster than traders can adapt, the failure of evolution brings extinction. For that reason, financial markets are among the most demanding of life’s gymnasiums. Imagine playing a sport in which the dimensions of the field and the rules of the game change at erratic and unannounced intervals. At one juncture, your adversaries are human market makers. A little while later, the adversaries are algorithmic trading machines. During one regime, central banks respond to normal business cycles. Later, they pursue novel policies that turn market history on its head. As soon as investors and traders adapt to one set of rules and conditions, those change and require fresh adaptation.

Because of the need for continuous adaptation, financial markets require ongoing workouts of our psychological capacities. Successful investors must maintain a steady discipline of risk control, a self-confident capacity for decisive action, and also an unusual open-mindedness and flexibility when change occurs. Opportunities are ever-changing, which means that successful traders must be analytical and creative, optimistic and cautious. On top of it all, skilled market participants must manage themselves as well as they manage risk and reward. If they fail to maintain focus/concentration, emotional balance, and self-control, their decision making suffers and they can fail to profit from even the best ideas.

Making Your Workouts Work For You